Steelhead river fishing help needed

[cpppark]

I have been invited to Steelhead fish in BC this August. This will be river fishing in the Terrace area. I have never done this before so its all new to me. So I was wondering if anyone on the forum could help me out with gear selection for drift fishing for these Steelhead. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[MtnGiant]

You will need a 9'-6" rod w/ level wind reel.
You will need floats and weight attachments.
You will need good salmon hooks and need to learn how to tie bait loops on your hook.

Then....you will need to learn how to cast and use this setup.

Where do you live?
I have a spare rod/reel setup and am also going to Terrace in Sept.

PM me if you might be interested in borrowing it unless your set on buying.

[Wild&Free]

There's a wide variety of methods for catching Steelhead around Terrace. I'm partial to bottom bouncing corkies and spinning glows. Some friends of mine use nothing but 1/4 oz croc spoons. Blue Fox spinners can produce fish as well. A popular method in is to float fish, some people will using mooching rods/reels others level line reels. Most common presentation is some coloured yarn.

Best advice I can give ya. 10' rod with an ambassadeur 6000 with 20lb mono main line. Might even want to go with heavier line depending on river conditions and fishing method. Bottom Bouncing/lures you'll want stronger to pull off bottom, float fishing you can go with lighter.

There's also flea flicking for steelhead. In personal experience I found that the fly fisherman always had to stand right on top of the seam in which the fish travelled to have much success. Was annoying to see a dozen or so tourists standing on top of the hole when I got out for the weekend. Some of them Europeans have no river etiquette.

[MtnGiant]

Originally Posted by Wild&Free

There's a wide variety of methods for catching Steelhead around Terrace. I'm partial to bottom bouncing corkies and spinning glows. Some friends of mine use nothing but 1/4 oz croc spoons. Blue Fox spinners can produce fish as well. A popular method in is to float fish, some people will using mooching rods/reels others level line reels. Most common presentation is some coloured yarn.

Best advice I can give ya. 10' rod with an ambassadeur 6000 with 20lb mono main line. Might even want to go with heavier line depending on river conditions and fishing method. Bottom Bouncing/lures you'll want stronger to pull off bottom, float fishing you can go with lighter.

There's also flea flicking for steelhead. In personal experience I found that the fly fisherman always had to stand right on top of the seam in which the fish travelled to have much success. Was annoying to see a dozen or so tourists standing on top of the hole when I got out for the weekend. Some of them Europeans have no river etiquette.

Decent advice.

Sorry...correction....my spare rod is 10'-6"

And....Some of those newbie European or foreign guys have absolutely NO clue about fishing etiquette. Some don't even have fishing licences and will still take home fish anyway. They are big poachers....so keep the poachers hotline on your speed dial this season folks. Don't confuse facts with racism boys!!

[new LT]

Originally Posted by mtngiant

Decent advice.

Sorry...correction....my spare rod is 10'-6"

And....Some of those newbie European or foreign guys have absolutely NO clue about fishing etiquette. Some don't even have fishing licences and will still take home fish anyway. They are big poachers....so keep the poachers hotline on your speed dial this season folks. Don't confuse facts with racism boys!!

How could anyone confuse this with racism..................

[MtnGiant]

Originally Posted by new LT

How could anyone confuse this with racism..................

No hmmm about it....anytime a foriegner is mentioned on here....it's seen as racism....it's ridiculous.

Anyone that is in a foreign area is a foreigner....including myself or any of you.

Quit being so narrow minded about the word foreigner on here.

Even a fish can be a foreigner when introduced to a new area.

Oh ya....this thread is about Steelheading.

[new LT]

Originally Posted by mtngiant

Decent advice.

Sorry...correction....my spare rod is 10'-6"

And....Some of those newbie European or foreign guys have absolutely NO clue about fishing etiquette. Some don't even have fishing licences and will still take home fish anyway. They are big poachers....so keep the poachers hotline on your speed dial this season folks. Don't confuse facts with racism boys!!

Originally Posted by mtngiant

No hmmm about it....anytime a foriegner is mentioned on here....it's seen as racism....it's ridiculous.

Anyone that is in a foreign area is a foreigner....including myself or any of you.

Quit being so narrow minded about the word foreigner on here.

For some reason you felt it necessary to especially single out a certain group
and how do you know they don't have licenses, face it no facts just racism.

[MtnGiant]

Originally Posted by new LT

For some reason you felt it necessary to especially single out a certain group
and how do you know they don't have licenses, face it no facts just racism.

Nope.....I can rightly say this because I have had several experiences in this matter.
AND!!!!.....personally know a group of foreigners at work that boast about fishing illegally.....no licence and they poach the fish.

Smarten up dude....it ain't racism.....you need a reality check.

And I know of legal citizens that do the same too.

[new LT]

Originally Posted by mtngiant

Nope.....I can rightly say this because I have had several experiences in this matter.
AND!!!!.....personally know a group of foreigners at work that boast about fishing illegally.....no licence and they poach the fish.

Smarten up dude....it ain't racism.....you need a reality check.

And I know of legal citizens that do the same too.

Then why do you not just say to watch out for POACHERS and not mention a nationality ...that is racism ..perhaps you should be getting the reality check before you post trash comments.......

[MtnGiant]

Originally Posted by new LT

Then why do you not just say to watch out for POACHERS and not mention a nationality ...that is racism ..perhaps you should be getting the reality check before you post trash comments.......

Your funny.....what nationality did I mention? (Europeans?.....I'm of European decent on both sides)....a foreigner is a foreigner is a foreigner.....wake up man.
Your seeing ghostly words and assuming.

[new LT]

[QUOTE=mtngiant;1977431]Nope.....I can rightly say this because I have had several experiences in this matter.
AND!!!!.....personally know a group of foreigners at work that boast about fishing illegally.....no licence and they poach the fish.

Smarten up dude....it ain't racism.....you need a reality check.

And I know of legal citizens that do the same too.[/QUOTE]

with this statement you are also insinuating that foreigners are not legal citizens hmm no racist motives there.........

Originally Posted by mtngiant

Your funny.....what nationality did I mention? (Europeans?.....I'm of European decent on both sides)....a foreigner is a foreigner is a foreigner.....wake up man.
Your seeing ghostly words and assuming.

just because you are European does not mean your comments were not racist. WOW you are stuck on that foreigner thing.... wonder what that says...

have a nice day.......

[noisy mouse]

Originally Posted by Wild&Free

There's a wide variety of methods for catching Steelhead around Terrace. I'm partial to bottom bouncing corkies and spinning glows. Some friends of mine use nothing but 1/4 oz croc spoons. Blue Fox spinners can produce fish as well. A popular method in is to float fish, some people will using mooching rods/reels others level line reels. Most common presentation is some coloured yarn.

Best advice I can give ya. 10' rod with an ambassadeur 6000 with 20lb mono main line. Might even want to go with heavier line depending on river conditions and fishing method. Bottom Bouncing/lures you'll want stronger to pull off bottom, float fishing you can go with lighter.

There's also flea flicking for steelhead. In personal experience I found that the fly fisherman always had to stand right on top of the seam in which the fish travelled to have much success. Was annoying to see a dozen or so tourists standing on top of the hole when I got out for the weekend. Some of them Europeans have no river etiquette.

"flea flicking" that's good. PM me if you've got any more like that!

[MtnGiant]

[QUOTE=new LT;1977528]

Originally Posted by mtngiant

Nope.....I can rightly say this because I have had several experiences in this matter.
AND!!!!.....personally know a group of foreigners at work that boast about fishing illegally.....no licence and they poach the fish.

Smarten up dude....it ain't racism.....you need a reality check.

And I know of legal citizens that do the same too.[/QUOTE]

with this statement you are also insinuating that foreigners are not legal citizens hmm no racist motives there.........:





just because you are European does not mean your comments were not racist. WOW you are stuck on that foreigner thing.... wonder what that says...

have a nice day.......

You too
This is going nowhere anyway.
And your stuck on the racist thing...oh well

[Marvel]

If you're going in August, the steelheading can be great but most of the fish will be in the main stem Skeena at that time of year. Water conditions make or break fishing the main stem Skeena and in August, it's anybody's guess as to what it's going to be like. If clarity is good, spey/fly fishing can be unreal as well as chucking hardware. If clarity is not so good bait is your friend.

[brettk.]

I would recommend you get a copy of the B.C. freshwater fishing synopsis and a copy of the salmon supplement. Both you can download off the internet. Depending on where you fish in this area and especially at that time of year a large quantity of the rivers, especially the popular Steelhead rivers are classified and of course have a daily fee. To echo Marvel, the Skeena is great at that time of year and certainly don't over look the salmon fishing. It's a conveyor belt of Sockeye and Coho through out august. To touch on rods, lots of people in this area do just fine that time of year with heavy spinning outfits aswell as all the others mentioned. After one trip you may end up like me and leave Alberta for this area. Good Luck.

[Wild&Free]

Originally Posted by new LT

How could anyone confuse this with racism..................

Originally Posted by new LT

For some reason you felt it necessary to especially single out a certain group
and how do you know they don't have licenses, face it no facts just racism.

Racism would be saying ALL Europeans, saying some tourists, from Europe have no etiquette is not racist. It's sharing an observable fact. I have also encountered locals and tourists from other parts of the world who don't show proper river etiquette, but it's the Europeans who by far stick out the most in my mind because there are more bad ones then good ones in my experience. If you've never been in the Skeena watershed between August and November you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. I lived there for 20 years and put up with them walking in front of me while wading, walking behind me while casting, kicking over my tackle boxes, standing at the bottom of a 1/4 mile run and not moving back up to the top after working the whole run, playing 3-5lb steel head out for an hour then taking 30 pictures of it, with the entire group holding it then literally throw the fish back into the water. They never apologize, and most are being illegally guided but since the money exchanges hands in Europe there's nothing our judicial system can do about it. Once when flying back from Vancouver I was 'fortunate' enough to be seated around a group of swiss/german fisherman on an illegally guided trip up to where I called home. The organizer of the trip had the audacity to say that the locals up there are a problem because every weekend where we're off from work and down on the river we take it over... He seemed to think that we had no right to be there during his vacation. I had to politely explain to him if it wasn't for us locals all the trails that he uses(for the past 25 years) to get to the river, all the nice unregistered campsites and fire pits and stopover spots are made and maintained by locals wouldn't be there; and how we work our asses off all week in the mills and bush to enjoy a peaceful weekend on our local river only to have it choked full of disrespectful tourists every fall. The rest of the flight was pretty quiet.

Originally Posted by noisy mouse

"flea flicking" that's good. PM me if you've got any more like that!

nah, that's the best I've got on fly fisherman. Other then line chuckers. but really that one's pretty lame.

Originally Posted by Marvel

If you're going in August, the steelheading can be great but most of the fish will be in the main stem Skeena at that time of year. Water conditions make or break fishing the main stem Skeena and in August, it's anybody's guess as to what it's going to be like. If clarity is good, spey/fly fishing can be unreal as well as chucking hardware. If clarity is not so good bait is your friend.

Yes, the Skeena is a wild thing and unpredictable. It can go from clear to chocolate brown in an hour without a drop of rain in the sky. There's been lots of rain back there recently so run off is coming along nicely, but slower then normal from what I've been told. So long as there's a few weeks of warm dry weather in July you're trip in August shouldn't be too bad. If it happens to rain frequently though, an season can be lost to dirty water conditions very easily.

Its a good time of year to be in the Skeena. If I were you though I'd try to convince who ever invited you that a trip up to the Nass is required as well.

[cpppark]

Thanks for all the great info it has helped me out with the planning and gearing up for the excursion. I have been given another option for the timing of this trip and was wondering what advice I might receive. This plan would have us on the water in mid October. We would be fishing tributaries of the Skeena at this time. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks very much.

[brettk.]

Skeena Tribs just keep getting better for Steelhead as the fall progresses. That time of year the focus has certainly shifted to Steelhead fishing and the chances of multiple fish in a day certainly increase.

[new LT]

Originally Posted by Wild&Free

Racism would be saying ALL Europeans, saying some tourists, from Europe have no etiquette is not racist. It's sharing an observable fact. I have also encountered locals and tourists from other parts of the world who don't show proper river etiquette, but it's the Europeans who by far stick out the most in my mind because there are more bad ones then good ones in my experience. If you've never been in the Skeena watershed between August and November you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. I lived there for 20 years and put up with them walking in front of me while wading, walking behind me while casting, kicking over my tackle boxes, standing at the bottom of a 1/4 mile run and not moving back up to the top after working the whole run, playing 3-5lb steel head out for an hour then taking 30 pictures of it, with the entire group holding it then literally throw the fish back into the water. They never apologize, and most are being illegally guided but since the money exchanges hands in Europe there's nothing our judicial system can do about it. Once when flying back from Vancouver I was 'fortunate' enough to be seated around a group of swiss/german fisherman on an illegally guided trip up to where I called home. The organizer of the trip had the audacity to say that the locals up there are a problem because every weekend where we're off from work and down on the river we take it over... He seemed to think that we had no right to be there during his vacation. I had to politely explain to him if it wasn't for us locals all the trails that he uses(for the past 25 years) to get to the river, all the nice unregistered campsites and fire pits and stopover spots are made and maintained by locals wouldn't be there; and how we work our asses off all week in the mills and bush to enjoy a peaceful weekend on our local river only to have it choked full of disrespectful tourists every fall. The rest of the flight was pretty quiet.



nah, that's the best I've got on fly fisherman. Other then line chuckers. but really that one's pretty lame.



Yes, the Skeena is a wild thing and unpredictable. It can go from clear to chocolate brown in an hour without a drop of rain in the sky. There's been lots of rain back there recently so run off is coming along nicely, but slower then normal from what I've been told. So long as there's a few weeks of warm dry weather in July you're trip in August shouldn't be too bad. If it happens to rain frequently though, an season can be lost to dirty water conditions very easily.

Its a good time of year to be in the Skeena. If I were you though I'd try to convince who ever invited you that a trip up to the Nass is required as well.

Sorry but anytime you name a specific nationality, religion or ethnic group in a negative manor it is a form of racism, As you pointed out there is more then foreigners that poach or have no etiquette so it would be proper to say "some anglers there" unless he knows the people personally he can not be sure they are even European of foreigners .

[diamonddave]

go beat a dead horse somewhere else, this thread is about steelhead fishing
Thats what I want to read about not your opinions on racism.

[grinr]

I'm also planning for first trip to Skeena,late August.As I understand it,the system should have 2-3 species of salmon(?) as well as the first of the winter run Steelhead in the river at this time?Would that be correct,or am I out to lunch on planning for a multi-species adventure?No doubt the steelheadin gets better as the fall progresses,but is there a decent amount of them entering the system in late August?Again,I'm hoping to get into some salmon as well,but am I asking to much by compromising my dates...ie;too late for really good salmon fishing/too early for really good steel numbers??
As much as I'd really love to mainly target steelhead,if it comes down to it,I'll probably go earlier in Aug for salmon rather than later in fall,only because every spare minute after Labor Day will be devoted to chasing moose and elk?

FWIW,I'll be "fleaflicking" only....both Spey and SH.

[Wild&Free]

Originally Posted by new LT

Sorry but anytime you name a specific nationality, religion or ethnic group in a negative manor it is a form of racism, As you pointed out there is more then foreigners that poach or have no etiquette so it would be proper to say "some anglers there" unless he knows the people personally he can not be sure they are even European of foreigners .

So, by your reasoning identifying someone based upon their nationality is and describing the negative behavior they have demonstrated is racist. Got ya.

[diamonddave]

Again.... go start your own thread if you want to have a contest.

[Wild&Free]

Originally Posted by grinr

I'm also planning for first trip to Skeena,late August.As I understand it,the system should have 2-3 species of salmon(?) as well as the first of the winter run Steelhead in the river at this time?Would that be correct,or am I out to lunch on planning for a multi-species adventure?No doubt the steelheadin gets better as the fall progresses,but is there a decent amount of them entering the system in late August?Again,I'm hoping to get into some salmon as well,but am I asking to much by compromising my dates...ie;too late for really good salmon fishing/too early for really good steel numbers??
As much as I'd really love to mainly target steelhead,if it comes down to it,I'll probably go earlier in Aug for salmon rather than later in fall,only because every spare minute after Labor Day will be devoted to chasing moose and elk?

FWIW,I'll be "fleaflicking" only....both Spey and SH.

Late August you'll be seeing some sockeye and pinks but not many, some coho, the odd late spring and the steel head will be bright silver fresh from the salt. It's a great time to be on the Skeena.

[grinr]

Originally Posted by Wild&Free

Late August you'll be seeing some sockeye and pinks but not many, some coho, the odd late spring and the steel head will be bright silver fresh from the salt. It's a great time to be on the Skeena.

K thanks for info.Re:Marvel's post above^^(post #14),can I expect to find steelhead in late August up in the tribs,ie;Bulkley,Babine,Kispiox,Nass etc.,or will they still be staging in the main stem Skeena then?I'll assume that the salmon will be well up into the tribs by then?My tentative plan is to camp out up in that area and spend a cpl days each exploring on 3-4 major tribs??

[Wild&Free]

Originally Posted by grinr

K thanks for info.Re:Marvel's post above^^(post #14),can I expect to find steelhead in late August up in the tribs,ie;Bulkley,Babine,Kispiox,Nass etc.,or will they still be staging in the main stem Skeena then?I'll assume that the salmon will be well up into the tribs by then?My tentative plan is to camp out up in that area and spend a cpl days each exploring on 3-4 major tribs??

Bulkley and Babine might have a few, but not many they're usually later. I have caught steel head in the Bulkley as early as August 28 between Houston and Barret Station. I've personally never fished the babine despite living in the area for 20 years. The Nass is a seperate watershed and it'll have basically everything in it in August. Though most of the springs will be spawned out and swimming rot. There are later runs of chinook in the Nass system as late as October I think. Kispiox is another river I don't have a whole lot of experience with. Fished it a few times for Chinook and Coho, but never went after steel head in it. Morice River was closer to home and a great fishery for steel head. If you knew the spots.

[MtnGiant]

Originally Posted by diamonddave

Again.... go start your own thread if you want to have a contest.

The topic of rude Europeans encountered IS pertenant to this thread....because it is very prevelant in salmon fishing areas and especially steelheading in the Skeena region.
So it's actually helpful advice to the OP as what he might experience.
I understand W&F's comments due to many personal experiences.....AND it aint racism....it's just pure fact.

Period.

To the OP....I think it would be a good idea to practice locally w/ your new gear before you go.
Hooking into a 20lb steely ain't nothin like you've ever experienced around AB.

[Wild&Free]

Originally Posted by mtngiant

Hooking into a 20lb steely ain't nothin like you've ever experienced around AB.

a 5lb steelhead ain't nothing like what's out here. Quoted for truth.

I love it when they jump and you think they've shook the hook, but when you reel in and look down... the bugger is at your feet with you're corkie hangin off its lip. Then she's gone again.

[MtnGiant]

Originally Posted by Wild&Free

a 5lb steelhead ain't nothing like what's out here. Quoted for truth.

I love it when they jump and you think they've shook the hook, but when you reel in and look down... the bugger is at your feet with you're corkie hangin off its lip. Then she's gone again.

Agreed....a 5lb er is awesome too.

And ya they are soooo much fun and arm burning.
I like the ones that feel like a dead log at first for a second or two and then.....ZZZZZZIIIIIIIIINNNNGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!...... take offfff

So awesome....I cant wait til I hit the Skeena area in Sept....I miss BC fish since moving here last year.

Do you still go back and fish?

[grinr]

Thanks again for info W&F,much appreciated.Gonna pack the truck,head over the hill,and play it by ear one way or another.Have rods,have gas,will travel....that's the plan.